Time Waster - Final Fantasy Record Keeper'

'Final Fantasy Record Keeper' might as well be called 'We Packaged A Bunch of Nostalgia Up For You.' Square Enix has taken the 'Final Fantasy' series, condensed it down into a lovely sprite form, and made a fair free-to-play system that doesn't feel pay-to-win, the end result being an excellent stop-and-pop mobile game that tugs on the heartstrings of fans old and new.

The (fairly light) story revolves around the keeper of a gallery of the 'Final Fantasy' stories getting thrust into all of the worlds he's been taking care of after an event throws all of history into chaos. The result is a game-hopping romp that collects your favorite characters and scenes from a myriad of 'Final Fantasy' games and mashes them together in glorious, turn-based combat. You set up your party, pick a game world to hop into and then fight your way through dungeons, leveling up and reliving the past glories of the SNES, PS1 and PS2 games, complete with fantastically made sprite art. Party customization is robust, and setting up your party for success with equipment and abilities is just as important as your character levels.

As far as the free-to-play elements, when you clear a dungeon for the first time, you pick up mythril, which is used for resetting lost battles and adding more inventory slots, or you can gamble them in item draws. If you run out of available dungeons, the mythril dries up fairly quickly, but to be fair, there are daily and weekly events that also award it, so it doesn't feel like youneedto buy it at any point. You have a stamina gauge that is used up by running dungeons and you have to wait for it to come back before you can run another one, but it quickly replenishes after a couple of hours (again, there's an option to use mythril to refill it), so once again, patience is rewarded.If you're a 'Final Fantasy' fan, old school or new, 'Final Fantasy Record Keeper' is a wonderful, unobtrusive way to get your 'Final Fantasy' fix on the go. With regular events and updates, it looks like Square Enix is going to keep this walk down memory lane fresh for some time now, and there's no reason not to pick it up on iOS or Android for the low, low price of free.